10 Ridiculous Things You Learn Binge-Watching WCW's Worst Year Ever
8. WCW Had THREE Names For Cage Matches
In 1999, the WWF tried out their 'Kennel From Hell' cage variation with Al Snow and Big Boss Man. It tanked hard, so they never attempted this weird cage/Hell In A Cell mashup again. Apparently, nobody in WCW thought sh*tty steel cage offshoots were a problem though; the company ran three different types of cage bouts in 2000.
Well, they were named different things anyway. "Caged Heat" was supposed to be WCW's version of HIAC. Meanwhile, "House Of Pain" and "Steel Cage" (which the announcers were instructed to differentiate) were exactly the same thing.
Huh?!
Unfortunately for the well-meaning commentary teams on Nitro and Thunder, WCW top brass wanted to run a cage match every other week on TV, and there were several on the bigger pay-per-view specials too. That meant long-suffering names like Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay looked like morons for claiming that "House Of Pain" was totally different to a standard "Steel Cage".
Incredible nonsense.